This Week's Must-See Toronto Shows: September 24 - 30

A year ago, Kendrick Lamar was in Toronto for We Day and spoke with NOW about working with bassist Thundercat, aka Stephen Bruner, who contributed to the Los Angeles rapper’s single i. “You cannot run from that Thundercat sound. His signature sound is crazy, and everybody knows it,” he said. “You’ll be hearing from him.”

We sure did. The cosmic connector between soul, jazz, hip-hop and punk turned up on Lamar’s acclaimed To Pimp A Butterfly, played bass on his Brainfeeder labelmate and saxophone virtuoso Kamasi Washington’s much-discussed album The Epic and released the mournful mini-album The Beyond/Where The Giants Roam.

A melancholic meditation on grief and racial injustice, that project was surprise-released in June and brings Thundercat to Toronto this weekend. Featuring Flying Lotus and Herbie Hancock, it’s one of the most beautiful records of the year.